Rising: African Descendant Settlement and Citizenship Initiative in Minnesota 1860 -1870

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New developments from Judge Lange

Through Descendant interviews, research, and site visits, the ILI seeks to expand the narrative about early African American settlement in Minnesota and the efforts to make Minnesota more democratic with the participation of Black men as full citizens with the right to vote. We have identified and interviewed a Descendant of Sgt John Harper a 31-year veteran of the segregated US Army. He began his service as a drummer boy with the Massachusetts 54, the US Army 25th stationed at Fort Snelling. The lengthy stay of the 25th at Fort Snelling allowed for the growth of Black families in farming communities around the Fort. Most notably, Richfield continued to embrace Black families after absorbing many of the " contraband " families brought by steamboat in 1863 by the US military at Ft Snelling. I interviewed Descendants of Fire Captain John Cheatham who are now meeting with the family to find information about his arrival as a child in 1863 in Minnesota. The active search by Descendant families is a very welcome development. Harry Davis and his family have started conversations and are looking for Sgt Harper's Civil War uniform. A visit to Dakota County Historical Society exhibit on African Americans in Hastings used census records and newspaper clippings to tell the story of the existence and demise of the African American community in Hastings. The ILI research will drill down deeper with expanded Descendant interviews and cultural context, showing the impact and backlash towards the growing Black population in Minneapolis, St Paul, Richfield, and Fergus Falls. Cemetery locations are being examined in Richfield, Minneapolis. List of the first 104 African Americans who volunteered for the Civil War was obtained from the Minnesota Historical Society. The genealogy search will need to expand to find Descendants and compare them to 1869 Colored People's Convention participants. There is a continuing pattern of segregation in public accommodations and housing. There is a history of men shuttled into dead-end race-specific jobs like Pullman Car Porter. We are preparing for interviews with Fergus Falls families. We have located a Descendant of Ralph and Elizabeth Grey. He lives out of state. I am planning an in-person interview due to the significance of the Grey family for early Black settlement in the Minnesota Territory.; One of the goals of this project was to identify and locate Descendants of the Colored People's Convention in St. Paul in 1869 which was part of a national effort to mobilize African Descendant people coming out of enslavement and the devastation of the Civil War towards full Citizenship at the state and Federal level.

A second goal was to find the untold stories about this early period of Minnesota history involving African Descendant people. Finally, being able to document the military service during the Civil War of African Descendant people in the segregated Union Army and the U.S. Colored Troops formed during the Civil War.

We used the Colored People's Convention document to identify the named participants from 1869. We contracted with an experienced genealogist to identify and locate living Descendants in Minnesota where possible. We also interviewed families who have a multigenerational residency in Minnesota but may not have been listed in the Convention document. We found the names of 104 African Descendant men who volunteered from Minnesota to serve in the Union Army during the Civil War. We also found the names of 13 Substitutes. African Descendant men who volunteered to take the place of white farmers and others so they would be spared the hardship of military service. We found one family whose patriarch was replaced by a Substitute who died during the Civil War. We found primary sources and oral histories relating to the arrival at Fort Snelling of hundreds of Contraband families brought to Fort Snelling by the military in May of 1863. This population joined the military, became founders of churches and communities in St. Anthony (Minneapolis), Richfield( Minneapolis after 1898) and various other locations across the state. We have expanded the narrative about early African Descendant people in Minnesota. However each Descendant interview has opened the door to more detail and experiences that need to be researched and documented. For example, Ralph and Emily Grey were Territorial Pioneers that led abolitionists and civic institutions to support formerly enslaved families to adapt and thrive in Minnesota through private organizations like the WCA. Family documents are held out of state. Some Descendants we reached out to were hesitant to go so deeply into private family history. Others had family members intersecting many major events in Minnesota history with a legacy of engagement and public service.

Our goal was accomplished to show African Descendant people had agency, political acumen and the knowledge to know they needed their own institutions and initiatives that could be supported by the majority of white male voters in Minnesota. We have many more Descendant interviews to complete and family narratives to write. The lack or the dispersal of records has slowed progress. Descendant families have different levels of organization. Some have done a lot of research, like the Fergus Falls 85, and others, like the Descendants of Sergeant Harper, are just beginning to organize as a result of our project. We will seek to continue this research through additional grant requests.